CHAPTER LIX.
THE NATIVITY AND NON-AGE OF MELBOURNE JOURNALISM (CONTLNUED.)
SYNOPSIS:— George Arden. —William Kerr. —Thomas Hamilton Osborne. —Editorial Thrashings. —Byrne punches Greeves' Head. -Kelly cudgels Kerr. —Kerr's Arrest for carrying Arms. —Robinson assaults Cavenagh. —McNamara assaults Kerr. —Kentish assails Cavenagh. —Davis knocks down Cavenagh. —"The Recording Angels:" Mr. Joseph Byrne. —Mr. William Corp. —Mr. G. D. Boursiquot.—Mr. John Davies. —Mr. G———n F———n.— Mr. Edmund Finn. —Mr. John Curtis.—Fawkner and Finn. —Reporting Reminiscences. —The First Civic Dinner. —Curtis and the "Scotch Fiddle." —Curtis and the Missionary Doctor. —Finn and the Amateur Politician.
The Old Editors.
{{dropinitial|G}EORGE ARDEN, the Co-Proprietor and Editor of the Gazette, was an accomplished and florid writer, not only as a journalist, but as a pamphleteer. The literary power of which he was capable was unballasted by experience, and, there was no mental brake to keep him within bounds. He had for a time the sole newspaper at his command; but he was absorbed by an inordinate self-sufficiency, and lacked perseverance. When newspapers were small, and their success mainly depended on the active personal supervision of the editor, Arden, who understood little of, and cared less for, journalistic minutiæ, was satisfied when he supplied an elaborate "leader." He was also much given to libelling, and falling into trouble thereby. In 1839, he was convicted and fined; in 1841, he was committed for trial, but the prosecution was abandoned; in 1843, he was again convicted of libel in connection with the first Corporation selections, and his brilliant and splenetic tirades against the first Resident Judge (Willis), though powerful agents in the ultimate un-benching of the official, proved the ruin of the writer. The sentences of fine and imprisonment passed on Arden involved him in pecuniary embarrassments, from which he never rallied. His partner (Strode) took an early opportunity of "cutting the painter," leaving Arden on board the tottering Gazette, from the wreck of which he was forced by the pressure of creditors, and he never after recovered himself. He found means sufficient to enable him to return to England; but in 1844 re-emigrated and endeavoured to settle at Sydney. After two years of precarious struggle, and encumbered with a wife, he revisited Melbourne in 1846, but he found no eligible permanent opening, and was content to do hack work per column or article. He made a final effort to establish himself at Geelong, but failed, and poor Arden for the last two or three years of his life drank deeply from the cup of bitter disappointment.
William Kerr.—Much has been written of this gentleman in other chapters, for he appeared in a variety of characters on the stage of our early colonial life as Editor, Politician, Alderman, Councillor, etc. He was imported from Sydney by Mr. George Cavenagh to edit the Herald, but there was an incompatibility of temper as regarded the two men, which rendered it impossible that they could long agree. So Kerr took an early opportunity of shaking the dust of the Herald Office from his boots, bidding his early patron a curt good-bye, and passing over to the rival journal, the Patriot. Cavenagh regretted such a "bad bargain" as Kerr turned out for him, and his lamentations in the matter were both loud and frequent. Kerr was a softish, fattish-looking Scot, with a big head, and features to match. His left arm was affected by chronic gout or rheumatism, but he never went abroad without a formidable cudgel in his right hand, a weapon of defence he was glad to resort to, when, as more than once happened, he was assaulted in the public streets. Though a shrewd, long-headed individual in some respects, he had not much newspaper ability. His masterpiece was a half-column "leader"
